After his playing career ended in 2009, Lue became Director of Basketball Development for the Boston Celtics.[1] In 2014, he was hired by the Cavaliers as associate head coach. Lue was promoted to head coach during the 2015–2016 season, replacing the fired David Blatt.[2] That same season, Lue coached the Cavaliers to their first-ever NBA championship and became one of the few rookie coaches in the NBA to ever lead his team to a title. Lue coached the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons; in both seasons, the Cavs were defeated by the Golden State Warriors. Lue was terminated by Cleveland in October 2018.

Lue graduated from Raytown Senior High School in Raytown, Missouri.[3] He later attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he played basketball and studied sociology. Lue was a key member of the 1995-96 team that won the NIT, defeating St. Joseph's in the finals.[4] He finished his Nebraska career ranked third all-time in assists (432), fourth in three-pointers made (145) and attempted (407), fifth in steals (154) and seventh in scoring (1,577). Lue led the Cornhuskers in assists in each of his three seasons and finished his career tied with Dave Hoppen for most games with 30 or more points (7). He declared for the NBA draft after his junior season.

Lue opted for early entry into the 1998 NBA draft. He was selected 23rd overall by the Denver Nuggets but was traded on draft night to the Los Angeles Lakers with Tony Battie in exchange for Nick Van Exel. His first three years with the Lakers were disappointing. His playing time was limited and he suffered from injuries in 2000. But Lue excelled in the 2001 playoffs. Due to his quickness, he was specifically used to guard Allen Iverson during Game 1 of the Finals. The Lakers lost Game 1, but swept the next four games, giving them the second of three consecutive titles.

In the off-season of 2001, Lue signed with the Washington Wizards, where he got considerably more playing time and subsequently became a better point guard. He played with the Orlando Magic in 2003–04 and had a lot of minutes alongside Tracy McGrady, but the team had the worst record in the NBA that season: 21–61. After the season concluded, Lue, McGrady, Juwan Howard, and Reece Gaines were traded to the Houston Rockets for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato. In Houston, Lue saw a notable decrease in playing time due to the overabundance of point guards on the Rockets' roster, and was subsequently traded mid-season to the Atlanta Hawks for Jon Barry. Lue starred in Atlanta, although again his team had the worst record in the NBA and their worst record in franchise history: 13–69.

On February 16, 2008, Lue was acquired by the Sacramento Kings in a trade with the Hawks. He was waived by the Kings on February 28, 2008. After clearing waivers, Lue signed a contract with the Dallas Mavericks on March 4.[5]

On October 23, 2009, the Boston Celtics named Lue director of basketball development.[1] In July 2013, he joined the Los Angeles Clippers' coaching staff.[8] On June 23, 2014, Lue joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as associate head coach, becoming the highest-paid assistant coach in the NBA. Lue had been a top candidate for the Cavs' head coaching job, which eventually went to David Blatt.[9]

On January 22, 2016, Lue was named head coach of the Cavaliers immediately following the mid-season firing of Blatt.[10] He was signed to a three-year contract.[2] Lue coached the Cavs to an NBA championship that spring. In May, the Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, continuing their unbeaten streak in the 2016 playoffs and making Lue the first coach in NBA history to win his first 10 postseason games.[11] Eight days later, Lue led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals, becoming one of the few coaches to reach the Finals after becoming head coach in midseason. On June 19, 2016, the Cavaliers won their first-ever NBA Championship. Lue became the second rookie head coach in two years to win the title, the third head coach (along with Paul Westhead in 1979–80 and Pat Riley in 1981–82) to win a championship after becoming head coach in midseason, and the 14th person to have won an NBA championship as a head coach and as a player.[12][13]

On March 19, 2018, Lue announced that he would take a leave of absence from coaching the Cavaliers, citing recurrent chest pain.[14] Lue returned to coach before the regular season ended and helped the Cavaliers reach the 2018 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Warriors in four games.

Lue's coaching style in Cleveland relied on flexibility and LeBron James's consistency; he shuffled players around James to adjust to matchups. In 2016, his Finals team followed the Warriors' own blueprint to beat them. Lue's style was described as undisciplined and unprepared in the regular season, but in the playoffs, he has been praised for his ability to "think several moves ahead and create matchup advantages".[15] At the 2016 ESPY Awards, Lue was named Best Coach/Manager and the Cavs were named Best Team.

Damon Jones

Damon Darron Jones is an American professional basketball coach and former player who was most recently an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Willie Green

Willie Julius Green is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his professional career, Green has previously played for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers and Orlando Magic of the NBA. He was selected in the second round of the 2003 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics and later acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers from Seattle in a draft-night trade for the draft rights to Paccelis Morlende and cash considerations.

Mike Brown (basketball, born 1970)

Michael Burton Brown is an American basketball coach who is the associate head coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Alvin Gentry

Alvin Harris Gentry is an American basketball coach who is head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Gentry was a former college basketball player, who has led four different National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. He served as an interim head coach for the Miami Heat at the end of the 1994–95 season, and later coached the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and Phoenix Suns.

David Blatt

David Michael Blatt, is an Israeli-American professional basketball coach and a former professional basketball player. He is currently the head coach of Olympiacos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague.

Larry Drew

Larry Donnell Drew is an American professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The point guard played college basketball for the Missouri Tigers before being selected by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1980 NBA draft with the 17th overall pick. He played 10 seasons in the NBA for the Pistons, Kansas City/Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers. In 1988–89, Drew played in the Italian League with Scavolini.

Iman Shumpert

Iman Asante Shumpert is an American professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Shumpert was selected by the New York Knicks with the 17th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Shumpert won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

2018 NBA Finals

The 2018 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2017–18 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff, the defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors swept the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers 4 games to 0. This Finals was the first time in any of North America's four major professional sports leagues that the same two teams met for the championship four years in a row. This was also the first time that a team was swept in the NBA Finals since 2007, in which the Cavaliers were also the losing team. LeBron James, in his eighth consecutive NBA Finals appearance, suffered the second Finals sweep of his career, having also played in the 2007 NBA Finals. Kevin Durant was named NBA Finals MVP for the second straight year. Ironically, the last two remaining active Seattle SuperSonics players, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant met in the Finals for the first time, and this was following the retirement of another former Sonic, Nick Collison in April of 2018 after playing his entire career for the Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise.

Cavaliers–Warriors rivalry

The Cavaliers–Warriors rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. While the two teams have played each other since the Cavaliers joined the league in 1970, their rivalry began to develop in the 2014–15 season, when they met in the first of four consecutive NBA Finals, from 2015 to 2018. Prior to the streak beginning, no pair of teams had faced each other in more than two consecutive Finals. Of these four series, the Warriors have won three championships, and the Cavaliers won in 2016.